


The Farmboy and the Pilot

by Munnin



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Not everyone dies but not everything is okay, mentions of Rogue One and New Hope characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 11:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9232799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munnin/pseuds/Munnin
Summary: At the medal ceremony for the heroes of Scarif and Yavin 4, Luke realises how much happened before he joined the Rebellion.





	

The medal ceremony was both beautiful and painful. Luke was so proud, standing there with Leia, Han and Chewie, wearing the first new clothes he’d had in… well as long as he could remember. The medal was heavy around his neck, which felt right. It should be. They’d lost a lot of people. The burden of that, as well as the victory should be heavy. Even so, he couldn’t help but beam. They’d won. The Death Star was destroyed and the rebellion was saved. 

And then there was the second round of medals. The survivors of Scarif. Luke had heard about the battle second-hand but in the rush to fight the approaching Death Star, he’d never seen the three of them in person. 

A man and a woman. Captain… Andor? Something like that. And Jyn Eros. Everyone knew about her. They walked together, their shoulder only just not touching. Luke could see they were in love. Or something like it. Maybe just surviving had bound them together, the way he, Leia and Han were. 

But the man who walked behind them was… different. 

Where Andor and Eros stood proudly, walked firmly, the man behind them hunched. As if he expected to be fired on at any moment. He looked hagged, unshaven and tired. And out of place in his clean new rebel uniform. It sat on his shoulders like a curse. 

He was… Rook? Luke remembered hearing the name but wasn’t sure he had it right. He’d been an imperial cargo pilot who had defected. He’s heard some of the other pilots laughing about Rook but never caught enough to find out what the joke was. 

And the man didn’t look like a joke to Luke. He looked like a man in pain.

The way the story went, or at least the way Luke had heard it, Rook had saved his team. He had stolen an imperial shuttle after their own ship was destroyed and had rescued Andor and Erso from the beach, just before the Death Star fired. 

It can’t have been an easy thing, given the man’s injuries. One arm was in a sling, his opposite knee encased in some kind of brace that caused him to limp stiffly.

When Leia stepped to him, medal outstretched, Rook jerked back, refusing it. Instead he gestured to the two medals wrapped in rebel alliance flags. It wasn’t till then Luke remembered that two members of their crew hadn’t made it out alive. 

Leia looked at Rook confused but handed him with the two posthumous medals instead. Rook shook the two medals out of the flags and stuffed them in his pocket. Then turned his back and walked away, leaving the two flags crumbled on the floor. 

Hisses followed the limping man out of the hall but Leia raised her hands for silence, drawing the room back to silence and attention as the other two Scarif heroes watched Rook leave. They seemed just as confused as everyone else. 

It wasn’t till some days later, Luke met the pilot in person. 

Bodhi Rook. 

Luke had made sure to find out everything he could about Rook, and about what had happened before and during Scarif. 

No wonder the man was bitter. 

In the back of Hanger 4, Rook was repairing a beaten up old shuttle, it’s underside scored grazes as if someone had crashed it through the trees that surrounded the base. 

“Looks as bad as my old skyhopper after I nearly destroyed the stone needle.” Luke greeted Rook with an open smile, trying to be friendly. 

But Rook scowled at him, ignoring the farm boy as he tried to wrestle a panel back into place one handed. 

Luke rushed forward to help but Bodhi scowled at him again. “I don’t need your pity, kid. Go and gawp somewhere else.”

“But you do need my help. If you think you’re ever going to get this thing off the ground. Why would you want a beat up old wreck like this anyway? The Alliance would give you a decent ship if you asked.”

“How would you know?” Bodhi growled, bracing the panel with his shoulder and bolting it back into place. “The Rebellion doesn’t care about me. Why should it?”

“You’re… you’re The Pilot. You saved all those people on Scarif. Not just your own team but all those rebel fighters. You’re a hero!”

Bodhi huffed bitterly. “Is that what they’re saying? I’m no hero. Galen Erso was the real hero. And you should hear what they say about him.”

Luke had heard. Galen Erso, the Father of Death. The Butcher of Alderaan. The creator of the most devastating weapon ever made. “But… he did the right thing in the end, didn’t he?” Luke spluttered, trying to sound like he knew for sure. “He was the one who told the rebels where to find the plans?”

“In the end?” Rook’s eyes blazed, advancing on Luke. “The Empire took everything from him. His freedom, his daughter. They murdered his wife in front of him and forced him to work on that death machine. And he did it. Because he knew they would do it without him.” Rook spat the words in fury, “He endangered himself every day to build in the flaw that let you fly-boys blow it up. He suffered at the hands of the Empire, everyday living in fear he’d be discovered. His life’s work was making what happened out there possible. It cost him everything! His life, his _love_ -”

Rook broke off, stumbling. The wrench dropped from his hand in a clatter as he clutched his damaged shoulder.

Luke reached for him, managing to arrest the man’s fall, lowering him to the ground. 

It wasn’t till that moment Luke realised how young the pilot was. Bodhi Rook couldn’t have been more than a few years other than himself. 

Everything he’d been through had aged Rook, weighting heavily on him. The fire in his eyes now dimmed, Luke could see nothing but pain.

“Why you’re repairing this ship?” Luke asked, supporting Rook’s good arm. “You’re leaving?”

Rook nodded, expression tight. “I didn’t come here for the rebellion.” His voice was softer now, full of pain. Only a fraction of which had to do with his arm. “I came because of Galen. Everything was for him. It’s done now. I have no place here.”

“Rebellion needs you. It need heroes. All those people you saved!” Luke argued, trying to make Rook understand how much his actions had mattered.

Rook shook his head. “Galen was the hero, not me. I’ve done what I came here to do. What Galen needed me to do. Now I’m leaving. There are other people who need to be laid to rest.”

“The medals you took?”

Rook nodded. “Chirrut and Baze. They were dead before I could get off the ground. Just metres from each other.” He swallowed, his voice cracking again. “I couldn’t retrieve their bodies. The least I can do is take those medals back to their home world. Our home world. What’s left of it, anyway.”

“What happened to it? Your world, I mean.” Luke and never thought to ask. 

Rook snorted derisively. “Alderaan wasn’t the first world the Empire fired on. Just the first one they destroyed completely. Before Scarif, they fired on Jedha. The Holy City. Because they thought I was there. Everyone in that city died because the Empire was afraid of Galen’s message. Chirrut and Baze wanted to avenge their home. That’s done now. I’m laying them to rest.” He pulled his knees up, rubbing his aching leg around the brace. 

“But what of you?” Luke asked. “Will you go home to Jedha?”

Rook shook his head slowly. “There was nothing left for me there, even before the Empire obliterated the Holy City. I’m going to Eadu. I’m going to find anything that’s left of Galen’s and I’m taking it to Lah'mu. To rest with his wife.”

“You cared about him a lot.” Luke said softly, thinking of Ben, thinking about the empty pile of robe and Ben’s voice in his ear in the heat of battle.

“I loved him.” Rook answered simply and unhesitatingly. “He was the best man I ever knew.”

Luke thought for a moment, trying the feel for that clear, calm place he felt when he’d fired that final shot. Then he knew what the right thing to do was. “Let me help you fix the ship? To honour the man who saved us all.”

For the first time since Luke had seen him, Bodhi Rook’s face relaxed into something not quite a smile. “For Galen.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a prompt on [Rogue One Kink](http://rogueonekink.dreamwidth.org/1084.html?thread=326204#cmt326204)


End file.
